A child's prayer from 1737, in England:

"Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, 

If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. Amen."

Angels are calling ..... There's playtime in Heaven's Creation Garden.

My mom and dad taught me this child's bedtime prayer. The prayer told me I was a child of God and that I would always be safe in His arms.

But for some moms, dads and families, that 3rd line has become a dreadful reality which has forever changed their lives.

And so, it's my hope that this children's book can in some way ease the pain, bring comfort, peace and assurance for the parents, siblings, and extended families.

                                                   -- M. Van Hove

“Today is a special day,” says Thomas. “It's my turn to be a guide to a new friend. And I get to show her our Creation Garden and so much more. There's so much fun here. 

I don't know where to start!”

“But I know that it's going to be full of laughs, smiles and new friendship.”

“So, follow me down this path and let's go meet our new friend.”

 "Look over there. I can see a girl coming up the path," says Thomas. “Let's run and meet her.”

“Hi, my name is Thomas and we're on the path to the Creation Garden.” The little girl smiles and tells Thomas her name is Tess. 

Tess then asks, "What's a Creation Garden?" Thomas tells her it's one of the most popular playtime places where girls and boys are like builders. 

They're creating new playtime fun for all the children.

Tess smiles and says, "I'd like to join you."

"Hold my hand and let's go there," says Thomas.

"This is our first playtime fun place and it's full of wonderful colors," says Thomas. 

Tess looks up at the colorful rainbows floating within reach of her hand. 

Thomas goes up to one of the rainbows and tells Tess, "Watch me." 

Thomas dips his fingers in the rainbow and blue and red paint covers his fingertips. 

It's time to do some coloring together.

Tess smiles at Thomas and dips her fingers into the rainbow and they both start painting onto the canvas. 

They laugh and giggle as they continue to dip their fingers into more rainbows together.

So many colors, buttercup yellow, blue, red, pink, and green. It's all there and more.

Together they have fun finger painting their own rainbow.

When the painting was finished, Thomas and Tess looked at each other and saw that they were both covered in colorful paint, but Thomas knew that wasn't a problem at all in the Creation Garden. 

Tess looks at Thomas, "What do we do now?"

Thomas gives Tess a big smile. "Come on! Let me show you.”

Thomas holds Tess' hand and says, "It’s time to go swimming in a river of stars."

Together they soar higher and higher until they are in the Milky Way.

Thomas and Tess feel the warm water that's flowing from the stars and they both jump in.

They laugh and giggle as the river swirls about them.

They slip and slide around the stars throughout the galaxy, going up and down, and all around.

At the end of the Milky Way they jump out and see that all of the paint has been washed away.

"Wow! That was a lot of fun," Tess says to Thomas. 

Just then her tummy begins to rumble. 

"Would you like a special treat from another Creation Garden?" Thomas asks Tess.

Tess gives a big nod. "Sure! I'll follow you."

They hold hands and run down another pathway into a forest meadow.

Soon Tess can hear a buzzing noise coming from the trees. She looks closer and sees lots of honey bees.

Thomas says, "Here come our friends."

Tess looks and a swarm of honey bees come swirling out of the hives.

As they get closer Thomas tells Tess that the bees are great builders. They all work together and like giving back some of their honey to those who come down this pathway. Thomas and Tess hold out their hands and get dripping honey cakes. Thomas and Tess thank the bees.

Thomas tells Tess they're off to another Creation Garden.

Bees and Honey-Cakes

 Thanks for the 

      yummy treat

"Tess, Would you like to add something to the Creation Garden?" Thomas asks.

Tess says, "This is all so new to me. I don't know where to begin."

"Well," Thomas suggests, "the best place to start is something that is really special to your heart."

Tess closes her eyes and then she smiles. "We need more children here."

Thomas calls all the children together from the Creation Garden. When everyone is seated Tess begins to sing, "This little light of mine." The children join in and together they sing her favorite song.

Tess asks the children for another song. Paula tells them all about the Goodness of God and starts to sing, "I love you, Lord..." Everyone joins in singing.

When the song finishes everyone stands up raising their arms and dances together. Paula then starts to sing her favorite song, "Jesus loves me" and they all happily join her in singing.  

Their singing brings angels to hover over them and rejoice in the beautiful voices of all the children.

Their songs can be heard throughout the Creation Garden and into the stars.

After the singing the children start wandering down  another pathway. Thomas and Tess follow them.

"Where is everyone going?" Tess asks. Thomas just smiles and tells her to follow along.

They soon see a large tree and the children are walking towards it.

As Tess draws nearer, Thomas points to the storyteller. "Look! I can see Jesus coming down another pathway towards the same tree."

Jesus welcomes all the children to sit around him. 

He begins to tell the children about when He was a little boy living in Nazareth. 

"I had so much fun with my brothers, sisters and friends when it was playtime. All the children there would play games in the fields. We'd play games like "hide and seek," "tag—you're it," and throwing balls with each other. 

Hearing about these fun games, Thomas asks Jesus, "Can we play those games with you?"

Jesus smiles and says, "Yes, tomorrow we can all go to the grassy field by the stream and play together."

Tess looks at Thomas with a big smile.